Social Services Assistant

Summary

This position is located within the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) - Veterans Health Administration (VHA) - VA Mid-Atlantic Health Care Network (VISN 6) - Hampton Veterans Affairs Medical Center (HVAMC) - under the Social Work Service Line. This position is aligned with the Mental Health Residential Rehabilitation Treatment Program.

Qualifications

To qualify for this position - applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement - 06/19/2026. Time-In-Grade Requirement: Applicants who are current Federal employees and have held a GS grade any time in the past 52 weeks must also meet time-in-grade requirements by the closing date of this announcement. For a GS-06 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-05. The grade may have been in any occupation - but must have been held in the Federal service. An SF-50 that shows your time-in-grade eligibility must be submitted with your application materials. If the most recent SF-50 has an effective date within the past year - it may not clearly demonstrate you possess one-year time-in-grade - as required by the announcement. In this instance - you must provide an additional SF-50 that clearly demonstrates one-year time-in-grade. Note: Time-In-Grade requirements also apply to former Federal employees applying for reinstatement as well as current employees applying for Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 (VEOA) appointment. You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below: Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-05 serving as a Social services assistant performing social service functions - performs administrative duties and provides practical guidance support to patients with complex medical - psychiatric - alcohol and drug abuse and homelessness problems covering a wide range in ages and levels of function. Incumbent is required to exercise considerable discretion in applying necessary guidelines to enable them to resolve problem situations - and crisis events - enforcing social work program regulations. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Attention to Detail Communications Computer Skills Flexibility Influencing/Negotiating Integrity/Honesty Interpersonal Skills Interpersonal Skills Manages and Organizes Information Reading Comprehension Self-Management Stress Tolerance Teamwork Veteran and Customer Focus Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience - including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g. - Peace Corps - AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g. - professional; philanthropic; religions; spiritual; community; student; social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies - knowledge - and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience - including volunteer experience. Note: A full year of work is considered to be 35-40 hours of work per week. Part-time experience will be credited on the basis of time actually spent in appropriate activities. Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must indicate clearly the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment. Physical Requirements: Work is generally sedentary and requires sitting - walking - standing - bending - and/or carrying light items. For more information on these qualification standards - please visit the United States Office of Personnel Management's website at

Duties

• Duties include: Developing and maintaining a therapeutic professional helping relationship with residents admitted to the Domiciliary
• Providing orientation to new residents by explaining Domiciliary policies and procedures - treatment expectations and goals - as well as ensuring that all domiciliary admission requirements are signed
• Interviewing each resident to assess skills-associated activities of daily living - leisure and work interests - personal hygiene - interpersonal communication - etc
• Maintains close contact with patients to ensure that their behavior and social adjustments are satisfactory
• Providing psycho-educational groups using a guidance model and applying past experience and knowledge of problems
• Demonstrates the ability to work with a variety of patients physical - mental - emotional - and behavioral problems using different techniques
• Organizes and facilitates small groups of patients for development of problem-solving skills for return to community living - independent living skills - reality orientation and current events
• Provides crisis intervention in situations of medical - psychiatric and/or behavioral nature
• Utilizing high degree of independent judgment - promptly assesses the situation and initiates appropriate action to secure medical care or police assistance
• Utilizes appropriate precautions in cases of injury - potential suicide - or infectious diseases
• Monitors compliance with treatment plan requirements as well as Domiciliary regulations
• Monitors compliance with sobriety requirements for abstinence from alcohol and drugs by performing breath checks and urine screens according to established procedures and documenting results.
• Performs regular administrative functions - e.g
• makes bed assignments - prepares - processes patients for clearance - and completes entries in communication log
• Work Schedule: Varying shifts 0800am-4:30pm - 3:30pm-12:00am - 12:00am-830am Virtual: This is not a virtual position
• Position Description/PD#: Social Services Assistant/PD06837A and PD068370 Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not authorized Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not approved Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not authorized

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The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) is the largest integrated health care system in the United States, providing care at 1,321 health care facilities, including 172 VA Medical Centers and 1,138 outpatient sites of care of varying complexity (VHA outpatient clinics) to over 9 million Veterans enrolled in the VA health care program. VHA Medical Centers provide a wide range of services including traditional hospital-based services such as surgery, critical care, mental health, orthopedics, pharmacy, radiology and physical therapy. In addition, most of our medical centers offer additional medical and surgical specialty services including audiology & speech pathology, dermatology, dental, geriatrics, neurology, oncology, podiatry, prosthetics, urology, and vision care. Some medical centers also offer advanced services such as organ transplants and plastic surgery.

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